US ports prepare for Panama Canal expansion, and PortEconomics associate member Grace Wang examines the degree of readiness to accept Post-Panamax vessels after the new set of locks begins operation in 2015, in a report published with sponsorship from the NAIOP Commercial Real Estate Development Association.

The report focuses on nine container ports on the nation’s East and South coasts: the East Coast ports of New York and New Jersey and Baltimore; the Southeast ports of Virginia, Charleston and Savannah; the Florida ports of Miami, Jacksonville and Everglades; and the Gulf port of Houston. Each of these ports is in a different stage of readiness to accept Post-Panamax ships. Some already are prepared to accommodate them. Some are in the process of expanding their waterside and landside facilities in order to accommodate them. Others are not yet implementing these types of expansion efforts or, if they have begun to do so, have not yet made significant progress. It is not clear when, if ever, these ports will be ready.

Grace Wang, joined by Antony Pagano have examined each of the nine ports from a variety of perspectives to understand its degree of readiness to accept Post-Panamax vessels after the new set of locks begins operation in 2015. Many of the ports face a variety of challenges, primarily centering on navigational depth and the number of berths that can accommodate the larger ships.

Additional challenges concern the capacity of the port’s landside operations to efficiently handle the large volume of containers on the Post-Panamax vessels. Each of the ports has a variety of projects planned or underway that will increase its landside and/or waterside capacity. As competitors, each maintains that it can handle Post-Panamax vessels. Whether the carriers agree will determine which ports succeed and which will become secondary players as ship sizes continue to grow.

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Dr. Grace W.Y. Wang is Associate Professor in Maritime Administration at Texas A&M University at Galveston. She holds a PhD in Economics from Texas A&M University. Her research focuses are in the areas of port efficiency, privatization, and incentive mechanism design in terminal concessions in seaports. Her research also includes policy implications of the global banking crises, deposit insurance, and the early warning systems in predicting banking failures.
She has published many journal papers and conference papers as well as editing journal issues. Her articles have appeared in journals such as Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Maritime Policy & Management, Maritime Economics and Logistics, Research in Transportation Business & Management, International Journal of Shipping and Transport Logistics, International Journal of Financial Services Management, EconModels, Journal of Advances in Management Research, Journal of Risk and Financial Management, International Journal of Commerce and Management, etc.
Dr. Grace Wang has been recognized several times by the international research best paper awards and awarded grants including from the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers and the International Association of Maritime University. She is also the President of Young Professional Chapter of the Transportation Research Forum, and an active member of the International Association of Maritime Economists, Port Performance Research Network, and PortEconomics.eu.

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